Mishaps or unwanted events that some of us encounter can be prevented if equipped with the right knowledge.
Captain K. Balasupramaniam, an epitome of a good man born to give, is part of the search and rescue team and has worked alongside armed and police forces to aid in countless crime cases around the globe.
With a heart to educate people, Captain Bala gave a talk on ‘REACT Crime Survival Program’ organised by the Perak Women For Women Society (PWW). The three hours passed like a flash with his entertaining sharing session which earned many pleasant chuckles among the participants.
Captain Bala highlighted on previous crime cases and shared what could have been done if faced with danger:
- Simple Hacks to Protect Against House Break-ins
There are many reasons for home break-ins. You may be surprised that the simplest hacks might just protect your home from robbery. Make your premises difficult to break-in by securing the parameter entries. What’s a parameter entry? Basically, your house compound, the porch, balcony, and back entrance.
Some of the simple yet useful tricks that will be beneficial to you like putting a dog food bowl in the porch, line the outside of the house with defence plants like cactus, use anti-theft padlocks: padlocks with hidden shackles (the U-shaped metal link that connects both ends of the padlock).
- Never Engage in a Fight with Armed Robbers: It’s Dangerous!
You discover a stranger in the house compound. What’s your instant response? Though most say that they would attack, it is an unwise move according to Captain Bala. He says it is a common crisis that people face but handle erroneously.
One, you have no idea who you are tussling with, and two, the lout could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, so avoid coming in contact with the perpetrator.
Don’t enter a ‘combat’ situation unprepared. You can call out for help but never counter-engage or ask your family members to.
What you can do instead is to call for aid, contact the police, trigger the alarm, and shout for help.
- Receive a Call But No One Speaks?
Do you sometimes pick up the phone but there is no one on the other end? A silent call might indicate that someone is spying on you. Hence, your next course of action is to make your house look occupied if you are home alone, such as turning up the volume of the TV. This can trick those with malicious intents into thinking that you are not alone.
- Beware of Hidden Cameras
It’s not uncommon to hear about hidden cameras in hotel or dressing rooms, so it is imperative to not slack on conducting a physical check.
Hidden surveillance can be easily detected with the phone’s flashlight if you know where to search and what to look out for. Start with a few unusual spots such as furniture, TV and table lamp.
In fact, if you spot the lens, it will just reveal itself to you. The body of the camera might be slightly tricky to find. Be suspicious of anything that reflects back when you shine a flashlight on it. Lens is a reflective object, hence, when the light strikes the lens, it will reflect back.
- Types of Spy Cameras
Cameras can be embedded anywhere, including the necktie, lanyard tag, spectacles, shirt button and customer service badge. Watch out!
In this age of technology, it’s no surprise that miniature spy cameras are rampant. You or your loved ones could be the victims of spy cams. And the most worrisome part about being recorded without consent is what will the photograph or video be used for or whose hand will it land on? Anyone’s images might be circulating online for indecent businesses if you are not careful enough.
Certainly, the long, never-seem-to-end list of our favourite movies and TV shows have taught us a thing or two about catching embedded cameras and reporting them immediately. So avail yourself to the knowledge – don’t throw the information you acquired away.
Having a stalker watching you is equally frightening as we have no clue what’s going to come after the current episode of obsession. Captain Bala advised us to keep pepper spray handy, armed ourselves with a self-defence tool and just make sure your weapon is liquid (gel-based). Pepper spray comes in two options, gas and gel, but always go for the one that is less volatile, the liquid spray because the gas might just hit you back if you open fire in a windy surrounding.
To sum it up, some safety tips you can take heed of are to avoid taking pictures with strangers, as they can be used for other inappropriate activities, never disclose your hotel room number to strangers as it can endanger you as well as those who stay with you, and when in the elevator, stand close to the numbers in case of emergency.
Besides, for those who live alone or in a small household, a megaphone or loud hailer with a siren might be beneficial, acting as a microphone to alert others in the event of danger. Loud hailers can be purchased on e-commerce platforms like Shopee.
Various types of survival training programmes are provided at the Code Red Survival Academy. For anyone who is interested, just drop Captain Bala a call at 016-2223853 to register and find out more information about the programme.
Services offered are as below:
- City Survival Training for Ladies
- REACT Crime Survival Training
- Road Survival Training
- Fire Safety and Survival Training for Residential and Officers
- Terror Attack Talk and Exercise
- Emergency Evacuation Training
- Flood Awareness and Survival Talk
- Recreational Safety and Survival Training
For more upcoming events and talks, keep a close eye on Perak Women for Women’s Facebook page!
Gisele Soo
